


Boundaries and Expectations

by Daerwyn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, body switch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-22
Updated: 2013-08-22
Packaged: 2017-12-23 15:44:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/928261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daerwyn/pseuds/Daerwyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a potion incident gone wrong, Draco has unintentionally switched minds with the intelligent and infuriatingly right bookworm. Being stuck in her body, he gets to walk in the shoes of the same person he's ridiculed for six years and see life through a Mudblood's eyes. Just as she sees life through a Pureblood's. The two begin to understand the pressures the other faces. </p><p>AU where Voldemort was defeated in the summer between 6th and 7th year. The gang is attending their 7th year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boundaries and Expectations

"Honestly, Granger, it's a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry for a reason," the blonde haired boy muttered as he flicked his wand towards his potion ingredients. The beet root began to chop itself, finely diced pieces ordering themselves into even 100g piles. Granger was still chopping her juniper leaves by hand, something Draco had finished three ingredients before. Why was she so infuriating?

"I can hear you, Malfoy," the bushy-haired bookworm muttered back. She did not want to get points taken off from Gryffindor for something as stupid as muttering under her breath. She waited for Professor Snape to pass before continuing as the blonde glared at her. "The book specifically says don't use magic because it will disrupt the potion-"

"Then it wouldn't be a _magical_ potion-"

"I'm not drinking something you mess up!" Granger hissed. She didn't understand why Professor Snape paired them together for being Potions partners. They weren't even working together, but to drink each other's potions... She wasn't quite sure he wouldn't poison her. She didn't know what the consequences of using magic to chop ingredients would be. She didn't want to risk it, either. Nor did she want him to risk her.

"It's not going to do anything," Malfoy insisted under his breath as well. "Get your head out of a book and think efficiently."

"And ruining a potion is going to be efficient?"

He decided arguing with her wasn't worth it at all. It was just a waste of his breath and the more he breathed, the more he had to smell her. The horribly strong scent of vanilla and ink. He supposed it would smell good on anyone else but a Mudblood. But since it was her, bushy and... bland, she didn't deserve the slightest sniff more so than necessary to breathe. He just wanted out of the classroom so he could get some fresh air. Any air. But the tainted air of her.

She had a point, but he wasn't going to admit that. Malfoy pride didn't allow it. So he was going to make a perfect potion that would get an O and he would prove to her that he was right. Efficiency was better than being a prude bookworm. So he started to brew. He poured the required amount of water in manually before using his wand to levitate the roots of the plans and leaves he had chopped with his wand. He wasn't dirtying his hands by touching it. And had Professor Snape not approved of what he was doing in his many rounds, he no doubt would have said something. Draco had faith that his godfather would let him poison the Mudblood. Nor let Draco go to Azkaban.

The latter he was more certain about.

He stared at his cauldron when it finished. It was the same shade as his book had stated, a mint green that shimmered a tad in the light. He could do it efficently. He glanced towards Granger's cauldron see that she was nearly done as well, the chopping only hindering her in the beginning. Their colors were the same.

So they switch vials as directed by the Potions Master, his black eyes sweeping around the room carefully, gazing into every cauldron to make sure none of the students would be poisoned. "You've all made adequate potions that will have very minimal side effects," Professor Snape drawled as he turned at the front of the room. The black eyes of his bored into each student's own eyes. "Drink your partner's potion. How long the effects last is how you will be graded."

A few students glanced at each other nervously. Hermione spotted Ron and Harry grinning at each other. She didn't know if it was a grin reminiscent of the twins, or not, but she decided to not inquire. She was more worried about the potion she was supposed to drink. Draco already drank his, and was rolling his eyes the more she hesitated. She had to remind herself that Professor Snape would let her get poisoned.

"Any day now, Granger."

It _looked_ fine. And she was certain she saw someone else use magic to chop ingredients and they seemed okay when they drank the potion. And it wasn't a very complex potion. A simple tickling draught that Professor Snape had been very reluctant to teach because he saw no relevancy in learning it. It was nothing they'd ever use in their life. Hermione could see that clearly as well.

She drank it. It tasted... of cherry. Which it was supposed to. So once she dropped the vial on the counter, she took a seat on her stool, more relaxed than before.

"See, Granger? Efficiency."

He was squirming in his own seat uncomfortably, like he was unused to the feeling of being tickled. She doubted he'd ever been tickled in his life. She, however, felt nothing. "Then why aren't I being tickled, Malfoy?" Hermione returned flatly. She glanced at the vial. It was empty and the effects should have started immediately. Laughter echoed around them as everyone begged for it to stop. She raised her hand immediately, eyes staying on Professor Snape.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Malfoy's potion isn't working. I'm worried that something may have gone-"

"You think I would not have noticed the color if that were the case, Miss Granger?" Professor Snape interrupted, his dark eyebrow raised.

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but Malfoy cut in. "She's just not ticklish, Professor. She's not used to having fun. It doesn't occur in any of her books-"

"But, sir, the magic used on the ingredients-"

"There was to be no magic used on the ingredients," Snape barked. "Ten points from Gryffindor for not following directions."

"But _I_ didn't use magic, sir," Hermione stressed. She glanced at the vial worriedly. "I'm ticklish, but regardless the potion would work. However, the directions say to not use magic at all-" she gestured towards Malfoy in explanation. "-I'm certain he did."

Professor Snape glanced at his godson, making the blond's squirming even more evident as he tried to hide the discomfort from the sensation. "And your defense, Mister Malfoy?"

"She's upset because she didn't finish before I did." Draco crossed his arms and glanced at Granger, daring her to argue. "No one is allowed to out preform the Gryffindor Mudblood."

"Sir, he used magic, I _watched_ him," Hermione insisted. "And the potion isn't working. I would feel some effects."

"Very well, Mr. Malfoy will get credit for your potion, Miss Granger, since you are incapable of watching only your own. Ten points from Gryffindor for disrupting my class."

"But, sir-" Hermione tried to protest.

"Shall I make it fifteen?"

Hermione snapped her mouth shut, controlling her expression so he couldn't take any points for glaring. And Professor Snape glanced at Draco, a small smirk on his lips, before he turned away. Hermione set Malfoy's vial down and he filled it up with hers, smirking to himself. Bloody hell, he might be a ferret if he says a single word. He wisely said nothing after class ended and Hermione gathered her books.

"So, what did Malfoy do?" Harry questioned.

"Nothing," Hermione sighed. "It's over now. I think he took twenty points... I'm not quite sure if he took ten back-" She shook her head. "I need to have an early night, guys. I have arithmancy before breakfast tomorrow-"

"Before breakfast?" Ron gasped, as though it were offensive. "But that's way too early for a class!"

"Oh, it's not a class. It's extra reading," Hermione smiled in explanation. "Without the possibility of someone coming to kill me, I've been spending my freetime taking classes I didn't have time for."

"Oh," Ron muttered. He obviously still thought it was ridiculous, with the eye roll he showed to Harry. "Will you be at dinner?"

"No, I'll go to the kitchens before I start to study tomorrow morning," Hermione turned away from them, for the Gryffindor tower. "Night, guys."

"Night, 'Mione."

She wanted to reprimand them for the use of her horrible and much hated nickname, but decided against it. They'd use it anyway. She climbed up to Gryffindor Tower and placed her books atop her trunk, before she changed into her pajamas and braided her hair back, before slipping into the bed and drawing the curtains to block out the setting sun.

She awoke in a room much darker and colder than hers usually was, to a bed that was a bit firmer than her own. She rolled onto her side, sticking her arm out of the curtains, to the bedside table for her wand. It wasn't there. She sprung up, a hand coming to her forehead... that wasn't her own. The hand was rougher and there was a ring that connected with her browline. She pulled her hand away and it was much paler than her own... and... no. She grabbed her hair, or lack thereof. Short, and she knew exactly whose it was.

Shit. Harry and Ron would kill her. The curtains were darker than she remembered, but perhaps she had just woken up earlier than usual. Or she was still dreaming. That was possible. It was just a nightmare. She pinched her arms, squeezing her eyes shut. Once nothing happened, she did it again, only harder.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, Hermione thought over and over again. If he... if he wasn't in his body? Where was he? She untangled her legs from the blankets, seeing that they were just as long and elegant as the rest of his body. Bloody hell. She squeezed her eyes shut. Wake up, Hermione. Wake up, wake up, wake up!

No avail.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," a panicking voice seemed to echo around her. She gasped, turning to look around her, but saw no one. Not inside of the curtains anyway, and it sounded like it was right behind her. "What the fuck am I doing in Granger's body?"

"Malfoy?" Hermione whispered.

 _Granger?_ the voice was in her head, not around her. 

_Malfoy, where are you? Something really bad has happened._

_Your bloody common room. Where are you?_

_  
_ _Your dorm._   


_Shit, shit, shit. Okay, okay... are you... you're in my body?_

_Obviously. Meet me before breakfast in the Room of Requirement._ Hermione peeked out of the curtains, seeing his dormmates getting dressed. She shut them quickly, squeezing her eyes shut. _Where is your clothing?_

There was a moment of silence and Hermione felt as though she was alone. Merlin, she was in a snake pit.

_Don't you dare undress me, Granger. Just walk to the Room of Requirement in that. We're going to fix this before breakfast.  
_

_Won't your friends think it's weird-  
_

_Don't be seen.  
_

No. She pulled aside the curtain to find her dorm mates - well, his dormmates - getting ready for the day. She quickly looked away, seeing far more than she wanted to of Goyle.

"Morning, mate," Blaise Zabini said cheerfully.

"Bloody hell. Is there any morning you aren't a fucking Hufflepuff?" Theodore Nott grumbled as he pulled a shirt on.

Hermione didn't know how to react to that. She glanced around a bit until she spotted Malfoy's wand, and gripping it in her hand, she summoned Malfoy's robes and his toothbrush. And she began to unbutton the pyjama shirt she had on. She didn't look - she was very careful about that - as she dressed a foreign body. The Slytherin dorms


End file.
